Cash flow is the life line for any business or household.
You’ve cut back on your spending, worked extra hours and have pulled the money you had saved for something special. But still, somehow, you’re going to be short on bills by the end of the month. What do you do when you’ve done all you can but just don’t have enough money to make ends meet? We will be discussing on how to get through your rough patch and make your way towards a better financial situation.
It is no longer news that so many Nigerians are living from paycheck -to-paycheck and some of the people in business are not doing better either; just one event could cause a financial panic.
Often when a business is slow in taking off or when an employee’s salary has not been paid as at when due, people are tempted in desperation, to ask “Where they can get loan.†It is not a reliable route for getting the operating expenses you need to get a business going or keep it afloat.
If you discover there’s not enough money coming in, don’t start with the option of solving that problem by borrowing some money but Start from the option that there’s a way for you to get enough customers to pay you sufficiently to support yourself. In other words, when you experience a cash crunch, don’t ask how you are going to find someone to loan you some money. Ask instead how you can get money you need from increasing your service to more clients or doing more business with existing customers.
REASONS WHY YOU ARE NOT HAVING ENOUGH MONEY:
You Don’t Have Enough Business:
This is the most common reason for not having enough money. If your time was filled with paying clients, chances are you would have enough money. it’s so ironic how many of us will give our all at work, putting in late nights and overtime to help the company achieve their bottom line. But when it comes to your own business, you refuse to do more than the bare minimum to get your business off the ground. You got the business cards, but you keep putting off setting up your website. You go to networking events, but you won’t follow up with the people you meet. You created a Facebook page, but you won’t post on it more than once a week! By not doing your best in attracting enough clients for your business would result in you not having enough money.
You Aren’t Charging Enough:
If you have plenty of clients to fill your time and you are collecting everything you are owe and you still don’t have enough money, you are not charging enough or you are not packaging your products or services in a way that allows you to charge what you need.
Diagnosing What You Need to Do to Get More Business:
Are the people who need you aware of what you offer?
If other people are succeeding at what you are doing and there’s plenty of demand for it, this may be a sign that not enough people know about you. And that means you need to step up your marketing efforts. If people who need your product or service don’t know what you have available, how can they do business with you?
What to Do When You Don’t Have Enough Money:
Living paycheck to paycheck or relying on help from family and friends is stressful. Even if there’s nothing you can do this month, think about where you want to be financially a few months from now. So, start to make a plan to get there. Think about the big changes you need to make, research who can help you make them, and get started.
The key to dealing with tough times is to keep a positive mindset and recognized that it is temporary. When business slows down and money starts to get tight, it’s not time to cut back on your sales, PR, marketing and promotional efforts, although this may be what you are tempted to do. Slow times are a signal to move into high gear, to approach your situation as a challenge and call forth your greatest creativity and ingenuity.
You can’t keep building your business with a budget of zero naira (N 0) forever. Although free marketing strategies and tools are great, unfortunately they only get you so far. Eventually, you will want and need to invest in a domain name, web hosting plan, logo, business cards, email marketing service, custom-designed website, advertising, part-time assistant, etc. Don’t get overwhelmed thinking you have to have everything in place right now – just make a priority list and purchase at least one thing you need for your business every month. The great news is that when you invest in your business, it becomes easier to ask others to invest in you. Pay expenses related to your bringing in more business – for example advertising.
Tough time never last but tough people do.
Olodu keonyedi – is a trained engineer and by passion and personal development a public/motivational speaker, a business coach and human capacity developer, he has a B.Eng degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, he is a member of Nigeria Society of Engineer and a COREN registered Engineer.
Email: olodukeonyedi@gmail.com Tel: 08037489704, www.instagram.com/sir_keon. www.facebook.com/olodu keonyedi_mentorship
